Band of Warriors
by Bop
Summary: It's about the only band left. It's about a band they were trying to exterminate. It's about a band that wouldn't take death lying down. It's a story about a band that must stick together because the rest of the school is trying to kill them off. Updated.
1. War?

***Ok this is my first actual fic so try to cut me some slack. Please read and review to and tell me what you think. I will take flames and any thing you people have to say in response to my writing. I'll try to make it worth reading. Thanks.***

Disclaimer: All persons in this fic are completely fiction. If one of them in anyway resembles an actual person I'm sorry. These are my characters so thank you for not trying to take the money I don't have. Trust me you won't get much out of this 16 year old.

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"Surely there must be another course of action, Sir," pleaded the newly knighted drum major as she paced restlessly before their fearless leader. Corey wasn't dumb. She knew they were following the only path they could, but still. War?

Her director sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry my dear, but it must be this way. The band will understand our course of action and I know they would follow you to their deathbeds. Which some of them may end up doing." He turned to face her "Please bring the section leaders in for briefing and we shall begin preparing. Thank god for our spy or we would have been caught unawares." He continued on in a voice she couldn't hear and she left him to his thoughts. 

Oh why did it come down to this? She asked herself as she touched each section leaders' shoulder. How many of our numbers will be here at the end of this battle. Corey walked to the director's office and watched as the leaders passed her by. She looked each one in the eye with her blue orbs. Everyone from the tiny flute played to the 6 foot 5 tuba player. Each person was strong and they would make sure their respective section pulled through. They would have to work hard to keep the band family from being destroyed. Corey spun on her heal blowing her red hair around her. She followed the saxophone player, Angelia, into the office. They would show everyone that band held the power.

Mr. M was waiting for them. He peered out the door to ensure the rest of the band's safety before closing and locking it. "As some of you know we have been under pressure to disband for a few years now. Up until this point our school board has kept us safe from attach and from being forced apart." He raked his hands through his short black hair. "But now we no longer have that protection. In their recent board meeting they were persuaded to follow the rest of the schools' examples and to rid themselves of the band." 

Gasps were heard from every corner of the room upon hearing the director's speech. Corey scanned each person's face from her seat on the floor, looking for each reaction to the news. The band members were startled in turn but soon after the initial shock wore off their faces took on a look of determination. They would do whatever it took to stay together.

"What are we to do right now?" boomed the voice of the lead tuba player, Johnny. "Do you have special assignments for each section or are we just going to go with the flow?" 

"First off we have some time to get organized and to set up the ranks. Our spy is still currently in the outside world and she has told us we have at least a week to prepare." Mr. M looked around the room until he spotted a tiny blond. "Janet I assume you have noticed the absence of Tiffany over this past term?"

Janet looked up from her lap. "I had noticed that one of my third flutes was missing but she is normally so quite I couldn't place who was gone. She's our spy?!"

The director nodded. "I'm afraid we had to send her out a couple of months ago to make her way outside of the band atmosphere. The rest of the school thinks she is an exchange student from England. She looks the part of a popular person and she was immediately accepted into the higher society of the non-band world. Tiffany is 'dating' the quarter back of the varsity football team so she is in on everything that is being planned against us."

"You and Corey have known about this for at least a few months and didn't bother to tell any of us. For goodness sakes! You sent a flute, one of MY flutes out to pull a nasty job like this, and you didn't tell at least me!" Janet's green eyes spouted fire. "So what are you going to do now oh fearless leader? Hmm? Do you expect the rest of the band to oppose their instincts and injure other people? Just because you say so!? Well I won't have it!" She leapt to her feet. "If your going to be that inconsiderate to your followers and not inform them as to why the rest of the area's schools are against them, then I will tell them." She strode towards the door but just before she could exit it was slammed in her face. 

"Sit down Janet." Stated the always-calm french horn leader, Betsy, as she steered the fuming Janet into a chair. "I'm sure Mr. M is going to inform everyone of our…situation." She said glancing at 

Mr. M and telling him with her eyes that he had better. 

"I was just about to call this meeting and begin my speech to the rest of the band. You all may want to be present for it because I will being going into details about the origin of this problem that even Corey isn't aware of." He looked at Janet. "I hope you will excuse me so I may call the band to order. Corey if you will." He said opening the door for the drum major. She ducked under his arm and was into the crowd of the band room with the leaders following. Janet had gotten over her bout of temper and mouthed a silent apology to Mr. M. He nodded his acceptance. 

Corey stood on the podium and looked over the 142 faces in the crowd. "I need everyone to find a seat and listen closely to Mr. M." the minute she began speaking the room went quiet. Corey's voice may not be loud but it had the ability to shut everyone up. She stepped off the stage and took her seat at Mr. M's right side with the section leaders grouped around her. 

Mr. M walked up and took a deep breath. Here we go… 

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And that's the end of chapter one. I hope you're all excited about finding out the reason to for the war. Well just r&r and maybe that will get me to write chapter 2 faster. 


	2. Band Background

Mr. M studied the class. Watched each person as they settled into their chair. He heard Clarinets holding their daily screaming match and trumpets cracking jokes. Just to think, soon they would be fighting for their right to go on as they had been for years. He sighed, waited for the section leaders to sit, and began his speech. 

"I know non of you have seen me in a week and my reasons for being gone are soon to be revealed. But first I'm going to tell you a story. I'm sure no one here has heard of it because it was purposely kept from your ears. Six years ago a town called Everville, not too far from our Marque, mayor was approached by the school. The school board, the football team and the parents of the team were the prominent speakers, but everyone was there. Does anyone want to guess what the issue was?" He looked around and heard the tuba player Jerry say loudly, "probably complaining about the food." Everyone laughed even their director. "No" said Mr. M "Unfortunately it isn't that simple." The laughter died out as everyone processed the fact that their fearless leader looked grim.

"The school's goal of talking to the mayor was to rid themselves of the band." He continued over their gasps of outrage. "They said the band was becoming too cult like and the director was poisoning the peoples' minds. Another major argument was that it wasn't good for the children to be isolated from the other students, as the band people tend to be. They said that the children should also be relieved of the option to be in band and that society would accept them better if they weren't included in it's numbers. The money that was put into supporting the band program was better off used to fix the fields and to raise the teachers pay. You know this last is what got the teachers to agree. 

Anyway the mayor approached the band students and asked what they thought of the idea. As you all would probably be, they were went stark raving mad. They all wept and begged not to be split up and the mayor almost ruled in their favor. Until a large amount of money was placed in a certain doctor's band account and that doctor came forward with 'proof' that the band students were better off separated. Since the mayor wanted to be voted into office again, and he had a doctor saying his way was right, he removed band from the school's curriculum. The rest of the town, discluding the band of course, supported the decision and he stayed in office for years to come. 

But the band didn't take getting split up lightly. They held secrete meetings and played their music. They still marched outside of their town and they were well accepted by the other areas, until word reached the school board. They stopped everything. The director was banned from town and the band students couldn't see each other. The town demanded that the disobedient kids be punished and that's when the playing of any instrument was banned. It was a sad day for the band people. But they continued to play. The football team saw all of the attention centered on the now non-existent band and they didn't like it. They resorted to violence. Every wooden instrument was burned. Saxes, trumpets, tubas, any thing that played music was melted, burned, made unplayable in some way. The band people were spiritless and they gave up on any and all forms of happiness. The town turned a blind eye on the football players' show of hatred because, just like in every other town, the football team are treated as gods. 

Since then the breaking up of bands has been occurring all over this country. My knowledge is from the purest source and I must tell you we are in bad shape. As of right now we are the last band left." Stunned silence met the end of his words. Several of the flutes and an oboe began clinging to people and crying. Everyone else looked around at the familiar faces of their family in wonder. What would it be like to no longer be able to sit in this room? To not see these people everyday. The only people in the world that really understands them. He watched as heads started shaking. People began getting determined looks on their faces. No. It wouldn't happen. Each and every one of them thought at the same instant. They wouldn't be split up. Not now and not ever. 

A saxophone, Hannah, raised her hand. "Are they after us now?"

"Yes my dear I'm afraid so," Mr. M responded. "But I think that with the people in this room we have the ability to keep the splitters at bay. For we are not alone in this world. We have the support of every other band member from the other towns. They will be hard to contact, because of their situation, but we can find help. Right now our dear Tiffany, beloved member of the flute section for three years, is out among the rest of the school relaying information to us. She is the one that told me of our dire situation and of how it just turned for the worse. Until now our school board has fought breaking us up with tooth and nail but just yesterday their hold was broken. They were bribed with money and blackmailed with pictures of their indiscretions so they had no other choice but to bend under the pressure. Today our town and the football players of Everville are in a meeting to discuss what course of action is best followed. We have Tiffany wired and we discovered, before the rest of the school found out, that they are declaring full scale war on us in ten days time.

For these ten days they are going to try to become buddy buddy with us. You may respond as you would have under normal circumstances but don't let anything slip. Make sure they aren't aware we know anything. Your section leaders will be acting as relays between me and you. If anyone has questions please don't seek me out. Ask your respective leader and they may have the answer. Corey will be second in command under me. I've known her the longest and you all seem to listen to her well. Everyone is going to have to listen to all orders and behave well and we may have a shot at sticking together. Anyone against this course of action?" Mr. M scanned the crowd. No one raised their hands. "Okay then we will get started tomorrow. When you first come in the room I want anyone that knows a lot about the computer to meet in the west corner of the room with…Angelia, and she will give you your assignments.

People with mechanical knowledge or with weapons ideas to the east corner. Johnny and the leader of the clarinets Jonah will be there. Anyone else with any sort of idea meet in my office with Corey, Janet and Betsy. Everyone else bring anything you think may be useful. Extra money you may have, anything we may be able to find a purpose for. You will all meet in the center of the room with the Color Guard leader, Max and the other section leaders. May the band be with you and hopefully we can survive this test of our unity. Corey."

As Mr. M stepped off the right of the podium Corey stepped up on the left. " You all know that there is a great amount of love in this band and you know that we will never be split apart. I don't need to repeat anything else so…" she began screaming

***"Drill to the position of attention! 

Heals? Together!

Toes? Apart! 

Stomach? In!

Shoulders? Back!

Head? Up!

Eyes? With pride!

Eyes?! With Pride!!

EYES?!! WITH PRIDE!!!

Band attend hut! GO

Band dismissed!"***

And that was the beginning of something colossal. The biggest fight to hit Marque was about to start and the band would be the victors. They would see to that. 

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Tiffany walked down the hall with the disgusting arm of Bubba, the football team captain, wrapped around her waist. She smiled a secrete smile as she heard the faint echo of the dismissal. 

"Aren't you glad that finally we're getting rid of that money wasting band?" gloated Bubba. "I like to think it was mostly my doing. I did bring up the fact that we're the only school in the area to still house a band. And soon we will be like the rest of the schools. Bandless. Almost makes me want to jump for joy." He spun her around and walked away. 

"Yeah Bubba" she muttered, flipping blond hair over her shoulder, "whatever you say."

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The *** mean that I didn't make that part up. That is the dismissal of the Laingsburg High School Marching band and I needed to get something of my school into this. 

So tell me what you think? Please??? And thanks to the two reviews I got last chapter. I didn't think anyone would read this. Until next time.

~Bop


	3. Making plans

Corey remained in the band room after class. True it was only third hour and everyone still had three to go but no one could really force themselves to leave their home. Even the tuba player didn't leave, though it was his lunch time. She was walking around and comforting people when someone they hadn't seen in weeks walked in. 

"Tiffany!!!" screamed half the band, mobbing her in order to get a hug. She emerged from the group gasping for breath and staggered into Mr. M's office. Tiffany plopped into a chair and was followed by Corey. Mr. M entered.

"What's wrong?" came his worry filled tone as he sat in front of her. 

"I don't know if I can stand being around those...those... pathetic excuses for human matter anymore. I mean all they do is slap each other, show off girls as trophies, talk about games and rip on the band. I can't stand aside and watch anymore." She broke into gut wrenching sobs. "I just don't understand how they could want to get rid of us entirely. What did we ever do to them besides bring more people to games? At least we win our competitions."

Corey knelt down to comfort her. "Did anyone see you come in?"

Sniffing and wiping her nose on the back of her hand Tiffany shook her head. "No they're all in class and I told them I was going home sick. Then Bubba kissed me and told me to make sure I'm at his game on Friday. I almost lost it right there." 

"Tiffany look at me" Corey said in a calm matter. "Everything will be alright. We, we including all of the band, need you to stay where you are. We need a spy and your the only one close enough to anyone out there to get us the information we desire. Will you stay on the outside and keep reporting or do we need to find a replacement? I just need to know. It's up to you." With that she stood up straight and looked Tiffany in the eye. "Will you do it? For the band and all other de-banded towns everywhere?"

"I will" came the small reply. "Thanks Corey."

"Now" asked Mr. M, "what do you have for us today?"

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In the main part of the band room each section was in it's own area trying to decide what they, as a whole, could contribute. They were still in a state of shock and weren't thinking rationally. At one point Devinn, a percussionist, stood and screamed at the top of his lungs. " Why don't we just bomb the bastards? It will allow us to stay together."

Though the section leaders silently agreed that it would be easier they immediately moved to shut him up. "Devinn, Devinn!" yelled Noah "Snap out of it." But Devinn continued to look around, not seeing them in his current state.

Angelia smacked him. "Listen to Noah! He is your section leader. Pull yourself together and maybe then you can help us all get through this."

Johnny ran to the podium and jumped onto the surface. "Everyone listen up!" his deep voice caught everyone's attention. "I know your all scared and we are too, but we need to stick together and plan out what we're going to do. Don't you see? This is what they want. The football team and the school board want us to separate, and that's what we're doing right now. This is bigger than anything we've ever encountered before and each section can't tackle it on it's own. Now what we need to do is look at this as a whole band not as 'I'm a clarinet so I go here' or 'this is where my section leader is so I only listen to these rules.' We NEED to work together and we will do that."

Noah got up there behind Johnny and he got down. "Now," Noah addressed the band "We are probably going to have to stay in the band room for however long this war is going to last. I don't think it will be safe for us to sleep in the outside world because they may try to attach our band room while we are not here. So everyone is going to need to bring in a sleeping bag or bedding and a pillow. This floor does get pretty hard when your sleeping there." 

He looked at Betsy and when she nodded he allowed her to replace him on the platform. 

She started talking. "Next we need people to begin bringing in food. Try to make sure it doesn't need to be refrigerated because we won't really have anywhere to store it. Canned-"

She was interrupted when Jerry stood up. "Sorry Betsy but there is the room that we keep all of our fundraiser things in. That is a very large fridge. Can't we just use that?" He sat down.

"Excellent idea. I didn't think of that Jerry, well done. So now everything can be brought in. Still we also need things that can be stored in this actual room just in case they find our other food. Now everyone is probably going to want to bring in clothing so they can change. Also bring in your shower stuff, because, if you all recall, we just had that locker room added onto our band room because the football players and cheerleaders of visiting teams needed somewhere to go during half time. Little did the football team know that they were helping us. I think that's all. If you parents ask where your going with all the food and things tell them that the band the yearly food drive a little early because we want to have it all delivered by Christmas. Much love to you all and be sure you remember everything you've been told to bring." She stepped down.

Everyone in the band watched in awe as Betsy walked back over to her section. No one had ever heard he utter more than two sentences in a row, let alone a short speech. Just then every head whipped over to Mr. M's office as the door opened. Tiffany was the first to step out and with a little wave to the band she ran over and embraced Janet. Janet had tears in her eyes. "I'm so glad to see your not hurt Tiffany," she whispered.

Corey and Mr. M walked out of the office unnoticed. It was her turn to address the band. 

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Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth for a really long time but things have been hectic. I won't make excuses though because I have also been lazy. Anyway I hope to update more frequently so keep an eye open. Love to my reviewers. Thanks. 


	4. Seeking help

"I greatly regret to inform everyone in this room that Tiffany will not be staying in our midst for much longer. She gets today with us and then she must return into the non-band world. While she is here feel free to thank her for sacrificing her life to help us anyway she can." Corey scanned the crowd with her eyes. "Tiffany has awarded us some information that will greatly benefit us in time. The things she said that will effect us right now are few but we need all the help we can get.

"One thing is, the people who want to remove us don't believe that we will put up much of a fight. They think that with all of the sports teams backing them and with the teachers, that they don't need the rest of the school. So the numbers against us right now are about equal to ours of 142. Hopefully it will take them awhile to recruit the remainder of the school so we have some time.

"The other important detail is that non of the parents of the community know about this war yet so our opponents will need to keep it hush hush. Their parents don't trust their children as much as the our parents do so we have a little more free rein then they know we do. If their parents get suspicious we may have the upper hand. Especially, if our opponents aren't allowed out of the house. It won't stop them but it will slow them down. 

"Now you all have you assignments. Everyone knows what to bring in and what they need to be thinking about. I know that you all want to get to your plans so I leave you as you are. Feel free to leave whenever you want, and yes I know that school isn't out yet, but big deal. This is bigger than that. Get some rest and I need to see everyone here tomorrow at Jazz Band time, so at least an hour before you normally get here. You can drop off your supplies then and we will be one step closer to winning." 

She went through the dismissal again because the first time no one really left. The students poured their hearts into it. Especially the last lines. Eyes: With Pride!!! The pride of being one, as a band. 

Slowly the band room emptied out until only the section leaders were remaining. Corey embraced each one of them as they made their last checks of the room and of their things. They were ready for the morning. They filed out one by one and left Mr. M sitting on the podium alone, thinking. 

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Finally they had all left and he could try something he had been pondering for about an hour. He didn't know if it was going to work so he hadn't even told Corey about his idea. Maybe it would have positive results, maybe not but it was worth a shot. 

He walked into his office and looked around at the mess. Music strewn here and take out bags everywhere else. Ah the life of a band director. He opened a leftover pizza box on the counter and looked into it hopefully. Disappointed by the fluffy mold growing there Mr. M threw it in the trash. 

"What am I going to do" he sighed to himself, as he buried his head in his hands. 'My students are in grave danger and we should have been preparing months ago when Hillsdale's band went under. He continued silently to himself. 'but I think we have a chance. We have to have a chance.'

"Hopefully this will work" he brings up his computer. "With help we may yet survive." He brought up his e-mail and began typing frantically, reading to himself as he writes.

"I know you haven't heard form me for a year but you always said I could count on you so here it goes. I'm the director of the band of the city Marque and we're in trouble. Your assistance is requested to…" he continued to mumble to himself while the keys clanked on the keyboard. He sat there for long hours into the night and finally began to see something take shape. Long after his computer was sleeping. Long after his kids had left the building, Mr. M was awake and planning. Forming a plan to save all band kind across America. A plan to help them all 


End file.
